Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a network device. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a hybrid OpenFlow network device and controlling method thereof.
Description of Related Art
In recent years, the most popular network architecture is software-defined networking (SDN), the core technology of which is the OpenFlow network architecture. The OpenFlow network architecture enables managers to program a network to implement flexible network flow control without changing hardware devices.
For managers, although the OpenFlow network architecture has many advantages, there are still some existing features of a traditional network switch that cannot be fully replaced by the OpenFlow network architecture. Accordingly, traditional practice integrates the pipeline which is used for processing data packets of a traditional network switch with the pipeline of an OpenFlow switch into the same network switch, i.e., into an OpenFlow-Hybrid switch.
Generally, the pipelines of a traditional switch and an OpenFlow switch are two sets of pipelines that operate independently. Accordingly, during actual use of the aforementioned OpenFlow-Hybrid switch, two pipeline circuits are required to support a traditional operation and an OpenFlow operation separately. However, the use of two pipeline circuits results in a substantial increase in chip area, leading to high power consumption and an increase in the cost of the chip.